Fiscal Year 2024 Accomplishments: Program Implementation and Information Division
On this page:
- Protecting Communities by Cleaning Up Contamination and Providing Technical Support to Regions and States
- Protecting Public Health and the Environment through Open Burning/Open Detonation Rule, e-Manifest Rule, and Technical Assistance to Regions, States, and Territories
- Protecting the Environment and Public Health by Addressing Community Concerns, Partnering with States, and Collaborating with Tribes and Other Federal Agencies
- Protecting the Environment and Public Health and Supporting Industry Through Improved Data About Waste Management
Protecting Communities by Cleaning Up Contamination and Providing Technical Support to Regions and States
ORCR continued implementing the five 2030 Program Goals focused on cleaning up contamination at Resource Conservation and Recovery Act hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities. Through our Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program (formerly known as the RCRA Corrective Action Program), we made significant progress – and surpassed the annual goal – toward the 2026 five-year long-term performance goal of 425 cleanups, meeting the Ready for Anticipated Use milestone. Nationally, the program achieved the following targets:
The Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program also provided program and technical support for regional and state program implementers:
- Program: Collaborated with the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO) on a national workshop to train new and experienced staff across the country.
- Policy: Provided policy support for disaster resilience, lead cleanup, long-term stewardship of cleanups, and the benefits of cleanups to communities.
- Technical assistance: Provided cutting-edge site-specific technical support to EPA regions and states through the national RCRA Optimization program. In FY24, four optimization reviews were conducted addressing cleanup barriers at facilities struggling to achieve cleanup milestones.
- Technology transfer: Participated in national and international conferences to present state of science involving characterization and mitigation of chemical vapor intrusion and management of legacy and emerging contaminants.
Example of before and after a hazardous waste cleanup.
Protecting Public Health and the Environment through OB/OD Rule, e-Manifest Rule, and Technical Assistance to Regions, States, and Territories
In FY24, ORCR continued responding to concerns about the potential impacts related to open burning/open detonation of waste explosives. Specifically, in FY24 we published a proposed rule that would improve the implementation of existing requirements to evaluate and implement safe and available alternatives in lieu of OB/OD. We also assisted in the implementation of the existing requirements, which included providing contractor assistance and developing tools to assist permitting authorities in reviewing alternative technology evaluations and providing site-specific assistance to several EPA regions, states, and territories.
In July 2024, we published a final rule that expands the e-Manifest system to incorporate export manifests and other manifest-related reporting. EPA, states, and territories will now receive this information directly from the e-Manifest system, reducing paperwork burdens and improving data access. This final rule also requires certain generators of hazardous waste to register for access to e-Manifest to view their manifests electronically, avoiding the need to mail in manifests. The final rule also requires companies to correct data to enable high-quality data in the system.
In FY24, we published two guidance memos for incorporating disaster resilience considerations into the hazardous waste permitting and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) approval processes. These memos provide guidance to permitting authorities on when and how to consider potential future adverse impacts in the present-day permitting process and include recommendations for conducting vulnerability screenings and assessments.
Protecting the Environment and Public Health by Addressing Community Concerns, Partnering with States, and Collaborating with Tribes and Other Federal Agencies
In FY24, ORCR oversaw 15 community-focused projects, including two new initiatives to provide resources for regions to incorporate community-specific considerations into their work.
We led 10 RCRA community of practice meetings, providing a forum for the program, states, industry, and the public to share research, best practices, and lessons learned in their work. In addition, through our Community Engagement and Technical Assistance Program, we implemented nine community-driven projects.
We provided hazardous waste grant funding to states. We also supplied data, guidance, and checklists as well as technical assistance to the regions and states as they worked toward their regional performance goals.
We developed options with regional staff to update the RCRA hazardous waste state grant allocation formula. We also created a new Collaborative Program Oversight initiative with the EPA regions by establishing a cross-program Planning Group and piloting meetings with EPA Regions 1 and 3.
We support Tribal Nations' waste management systems. Our workgroup began a Solid Waste Cost-of-Service Quantification Study to estimate financial needs. We conducted six site visits to gather data, and we will use the data to estimate the funding needs for all 574 federally recognized tribes across the nation.
We also continued our collaboration with Tribes and the Indian Health Service to address open dumping. To date, we have assessed over 150 open dumps and uploaded our data to the Operations and Maintenance Data System so that these sites become eligible for IHS funding for cleanup or closure.
Protecting the Environment and Public Health and Supporting Industry Through Improved Data About Waste Management
In response to the Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, ORCR’s RCRAInfo team worked with the Central Data Exchange group in EPA’s Office of Mission Support to implement multi-factor authentication, ensuring a seamless transition for over 100,000 industry users. We also launched the Cost Pro software in RCRAInfo, meeting a key permitting program priority. Cost Pro provides the ability to calculate the costs incurred at RCRA Subtitle C facilities for activities such as cleanup efforts and for closure and post-closure work.
Finally, we launched the updated “Biennial Report” module within RCRAInfo, incorporating numerous data checks and validations leveraging the e-Manifest data. The Biennial Report data, required by statute, are vital for understanding the state of hazardous waste generation and management, both nationally and at the state and local levels. These data provide key insights into the volume and types of wastes that are generated, and trends in the waste management industry.